Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued Harris County for directing over a million taxpayer dollars for the defense of illegal immigrants facing deportation.
“We must stop the left-wing radicals who are robbing Texans to prevent illegals from being deported by the Trump Administration,” Paxton wrote in a press release. “Beyond just being blatantly unconstitutional, this is evil and wicked. Millions upon millions of illegals invaded America during the last administration, and they must be sent back to where they came from.”
“These expenditures serve no public purpose and instead constitute unconstitutional grants of public funds to private entities to subsidize the legal defense of illegal aliens who ought to be deported,” Paxton added.
As shown in Paxton’s press release, the Harris County Commissioners Court voted 4-1 in late October to allocate $1,344,751 in taxpayer dollars to a legal defense fund for illegal immigrants in court from deportation proceedings.
The county commissioners court — now composed of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, Commissioner Adrian Garcia, Commissioner Rodney Ellis, Commissioner Lesley Briones, and Harris County Administrator Jesse Dickerman — first created the immigrant legal defense fund in 2020.
The organizations that make up the legal defense compact, which are set to receive the taxpayer dollars, include the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, Justice for All Immigrants, Kids in Need of Defense, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and Baker Ripley, all tax-exempt organizations that provide legal representation for immigrants in need, as noted on their websites.
If Paxton’s lawsuit, which alleges the county commissioners’ court violated the Texas Constitution’s gift clause, were to be upheld in court, the money would have to return to the county, since it has yet to be disbursed.
“The Texas Constitution prohibits governmental entities like Harris County from misusing public funds by giving gifts or conferring private benefits to individuals and groups that do not serve a legitimate public end,” Paxton mentioned in his news release.
Paxton’s lawsuit comes after Republican candidate for county judge, Aliza Dutt, denounced the late October vote, blowing the whistle on the fund violations to the Texas Constitution.
PAXTON SUES ‘RADICAL ACTIVIST ORGANIZATION’ FOR REGISTERING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO VOTE IN TEXAS
A day before the lawsuit against Harris County, the Senate hopeful filed a lawsuit of the same nature against another tax-exempt organization after an investigation from his office found that the organization was providing illegal immigrants assistance with voter registration.
At least 14 million illegal immigrants have made their way to the United States in recent years, 1.7 million of whom reside in Texas.
